Climate Desk Live: AI, Energy, and Our Fight for Democracy and a Healthy, Affordable Future

As part of Climate Week NYC, Climate Desk Live brings together journalists, elected officials, researchers, and community advocates to examine the systems shaping our climate future and who gets to decide what comes next. This year’s program explores the collision of technology, energy, and democracy: the rapid growth of AI data centers and their toll on Indigenous communities, communities of color, and rural areas; the lasting footprint of decades of US nuclear weapons production; and what it will take for everyday citizens to build power and shape real solutions when government and industry fall short. THIS EVENT IS CURRENTLY AT CAPACITY. JOIN US VIRTUALLY — THE PROGRAM WILL BE LIVESTREAMED. Join the Virtual Livestream starting Sept. 24 at 9 AM EST YouTube: bit.ly/ClimateDeskLive-2026 Facebook: bit.ly/ClimateDeskLive-2026-FB This event is free and open to the public. However, the in-person event has reached capacity, but we invite you to join us virtually via livestream For those hoping to attend in person, please join the waitlist. Joining the waitlist does not guarantee admission, but we will do everything we can to welcome additional guests as space becomes available. For in-person attendees already registered, doors open at 8:30 AM and the program begins promptly at 9:00 AM. Seating for general admission is first come, first served. We strongly encourage attendees, particularly groups, to arrive early. Any seats not claimed by 8:50 AM may be released. JUST ANNOUNCED New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani will join us to open the program, with Mother Jones’ Garrison Hayes for a fireside focused on affordability, environmental justice, and extreme weather and its impacts on communities. We are thrilled by the response to this Climate Week keynote at The New School. The event brings together a powerhouse lineup of community leaders, mayors, scientists, researchers, and journalists for three dynamic panel conversations examining some of the most urgent challenges shaping our collective future. Across these conversations, we’ll ask a larger question: How do communities organize and build power within democratic structures when government and industry leave them behind? LaTricea Adams President & CEO, Young, Gifted & Green, Memphis Manish Bapna President & CEO, Natural Resources Defense Council, Washington, DC Adam Mahoney (Moderator) National Climate and Environment Reporter, Capital B News, New Orleans Lilly Adams Co-Creator, US Nuclear Impacts Map, Brooklyn, New York Moñeka De Oro Co-Executive Director, Micronesia Climate Change Alliance, Guam/Guåhan Leona Morgan (Diné) Indigenous Community Organizer and Anti-Nuclear Activist, Diné No Nukes, Albuquerque, New Mexico Sharon Weinberger (Moderator) Editor-in-Chief, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Washington, DC Dr. Ana Isabel Baptista Associate Professor of Environmental & Climate Justice at the Parsons School of Design and Director, Tishman Environment & Design Center at The New School, New York Dr. Gretchen Goldman President & CEO, Union of Concerned Scientists, Washington, DC Bill McKibben Author, Educator, Activist, and Founder, Third Act & 350.org, Vermont Garrison Hayes (Moderator) Correspondent, Mother Jones, Nashville